Households that do not return a survey can expect a visit from a census taker in the early spring, she said. Census takers will visit each house up to three times if no contact has been established. They will leave a calling card that will have a telephone number residents can call to answer questions.
A census taker is a person from the local community hired by the Census Bureau to make sure the neighborhood is represented accurately as possible.
In a recent press release, the bureau explained how to ID census workers: the census taker will carry an over-the-shoulder bag with U.S. Census Bureau 2010 printed in large letters on the side, will have official ID badges, will have a binder containing all the addresses that did not return a survey form, and will record answers to the questions on a form in the binder.
Ms. Waterman said the census taker will only ask the questions that appear on the census form. They will never ask for a Social Security Number or personal banking information. She stressed that census takers always visit the home and never try to initiate contact via the telephone.
